I have a two year old picky Chihuahua, and a new addition pup (Chi mix) that is ? probably around 6-9mths old. He will pretty much eat anything you put in front of him (I just LOVE dogs like that!) and my little Chi girl is pretty picky....she is much more of a couch potato than he is, can get a little chunky sometimes (but not from kibble, from too many treats and not enough exercise). Teddy, our new little mix, is a bundle of energy....essentially a rescue from a BYB about 1.5 mths ago. She was feeding him some type of cruddy moist puppy food (not canned, the moist junk); and when we got him I started him on Nutro puppy with Chicken meal and rice, he had been eating a combo of that and adult small kibble Science Diet (what my adult Chi Cookie was eating). I know, I know.....yuck and yuckier . After researching quite a bit (thanks a lot to this forum for a lot of good info I got! .

I switched them both over to Merrick about a week or two ago, they get some of the Merrick canned once a day mixed with the kibble, or sometimes just the canned alone (they LOVE it....esp. the chicken meals); and then Merrick puppy plate kibble once or twice a day. I also give them raw baby carrots, small bits of fresh apple, and some healthy "dog treats" occasionally. She really doesn't over eat on the kibble, she likes it, eats it better really than anything else we have ever tried, so I am not too concerned about her gaining too much weight on it, with the puppy I encourage him to eat as much as possible, he is still pretty scrawny.....but in much better shape than when we got him. You could see his ribs then.....plus he had demodectic mange and a respiratory infection that required 10 days of antibiotics, so the poor fellow had a rough begining. He is doing very well now that he is spoiled.:love:

The Merrick site claims that the puppy formula is fine for adult dogs; as is their whole line supposed to be for all life stages as well. I need opinions, if this is ok for my adult Chi, and should I leave them both on it indefinitely, or switch them over when he is a bit older? From comparing the ingredients and nutritional analysis, it looks like to me it is just contains more protein and a slight amt. more fiber than their other dry kibbles(28% / 3.5% and 23%/3.0%, respectively.

Personally, I think it's fine to switch little doggies to adult food after 6 months, as long as it's a high quality one. If they're not getting enough energy and are eating their body weight in food every day just to keep their weight up, then I'd switch to something more dense (like puppy food).